First it’s important to understand that the steps you take to improve your topsoil really do depend on your soil type. In a previous article I talked about the three main types of soil being clay, silt and sand and a blend of these three usually make the perfect soil for any particular garden. With this in mind, there’s easily a great deal of soil combinations that could be used and improving them depends on whether your soil is sandy, silty or clay-based. There are some simple ways to test which type of soil you have in your garden.
The Ribbon Test
This is a great way to determine what type of topsoil you have in place. This is how it works: grab a handful of soil from your garden and add water to it before giving it a good squeeze. You then need to roll the soil into a sausage shape. If the soil keeps it’s shape for a good length of time then it’s safe to say it’s clay based. If it breaks up quickly then it’s likely to be sandy. Silt will be somewhere around the middle. Of course you could send your soil away for sample testing but the ribbon test is tried and tested – it works!
So how do you improve different soil types?
Sandy soil doesn’t hold water very well and breaks up very easily. This needs to be addressed as any nutrients you feed into the soil will fall through and be lost. You can get off the shelf organic soil improvers but you can just as easily get your hands on some sheep manure or ‘mulches’ which will lie on top and gradually fall through and help the soil hold more water.
Clay soil is the opposite of sandy soil and holds water too much. It needs to be broken down in order to provide the best growing environment for your flowers and plants. You can actually break up the soil and add a small amount of manure which will encourage drainage while at the same time fertilising the soil. Dolomite and gypsum are also favourites, particularly for soil with a high acidity.
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